Sourav Ganguly receives death threat, police denies

Kolkata: Former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly received a threat on his life. He recently got a letter which was delivered by a courier agency at his Biren Roy Road residence in Behala hours before he was scheduled to leave for Midnapore to attend a sports event on January 5.

In the letter Sourav was warned that he would not return home alive if he would travel to attend that event, according to sources. After going through the letter Sourav soon cancelled his visit, sources revealed. He was also to attend a sports event of Vidyasagar University in Midnapore on January 19.

The two-page letter, with a title demanding a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Criminal Investigation Department, was written in Bengali by one Zed Alam from Midnapore. The copy of the letter is available this newspaper.

The second page of the letter had a family photograph of Sourav alongwith with his wife Dona, mother Nirupa Ganguly and elder brother Snehasish and two photographs of dead persons.

Addressed to Sourav’s mother Nirupa Ganguly, the letter says, “Your son will not return if he comes here on January 5. I have sent photographs with it. Do not send him here because Ashish Chakraborty took money from many people on the pretext of giving jobs. Even CAB will not be able to do anything. I sent you this letter because he would return home as dead if he would come.”

It is not clear if the sender of the letter pointed his finger on Trinamul Congress MLA of Garbeta Ashish Chakraborty who is also the CAB representative of Midnapore. The letter’s envelope, carrying a tag ‘Very Urgent’ says it was sent from an organisation: All India Anti Corruption Committee in West Midnapore. Sourav’s secretary Partha Rudra said that the police has been “notified.”

Asked about the incident deputy commissioner of police (south west) Meeraj Khalid however said on Monday evening, “We do not have any details. We have not received any complaint.” Even joint commissioner of police (crime) Vishal Garg denied of the incident. Superintendent of police (West Midnapore) Bharati Ghosh also said that the district police did not receive any such complaint.